Tag Archives: Pitch to publication

A very dear friend threw her words into the Twitter contest Pitch to Publication or #p2p16. A contest to get your words in front of editors.

She messaged me last week calling herself INSANE!

Of course I responded with a big WHAT?!?!?!

In a matter of moments she had found #p2p16, had read through the editors’ wish lists and found a couple who might just be looking for what she had written. I have read this particular manuscript (in one of its previous draft stages) and I loved it. Her words are stunning, the idea unique, dealing with eating disorders, an issue that needs to be brought into the light…so I told her to DO IT!

So easy. Right? Well, no.

When you ponder doing crazy things, panic sets in pretty quick. Was her query good enough and what about her sample pages? And if they request more, how much more and were her words okay?

These are questions with no answers. Because you can’t know until you put your words out there for everyone to see. And one person might love it and another won’t. Because we live in the land of art, where everything is subjective. Oh, art why you gotta be that way?

But keeping your art to yourself because of fear isn’t okay. So my friend had to be brave. She had to have faith in her work. And she had me and her hubs cheering her on!

And she did it! Then she panicked, because why wouldn’t you?

Now she waits to see if any of the editors she submitted to asks for more pages. Then she’ll wait to see if she is chosen by one of those editors to have them help her go through her manuscript. What a great prize!

Then her words will go before agents.

The chances of getting that far? I don’t know… not fabulous, but why not try? All it takes is trying. A little faith. A little bravery. And go for it.

My friend and I connect on several levels, but one we laugh about is our ability to over-think. We would revise forever, the words never good enough, the story never quite right. And our procrastination skills are legendary. Just ask us, we’ll tell you…later.

Sometimes it takes a rash decision, a moment of JUST DO IT to get past the over-thinking and let go of the need to revise again.

Only then does the magic happen.

And that one moment of JUST DO IT, that moment of bravery, of faith…could lead to dreams coming true.